Harvard Law School: Patent Law 2021

version 6; last revised, November 27, 2021

WEEK 1: The Patent System

• Lecture: Patent Fundamentals (Fisher) 
• September 7 (10:30-11:50): Employers, Employees, and Funders
  • Catherine Fisk, “Removing the ‘Fuel of Interest” from the ‘Fire of Genius’: Law and the Employee-Inventor, 1830-1930,” 65 University of Chicago Law Review 1127 (1998), pages 1127-37
  • Stanford University v. Roche Molecular Sys., 563 U.S. 776 (2011)

WEEK 2: A Policy Framework

• Lecture:  Patent Policy (Fisher & Lander) 
• September 13 (10:30-11:50): Motivations for Innovation
  • Miguel Helft & Shan Carter, “A Chief Executive’s Attention to Detail, Noted in 313 Patents,” New York Times, August 25, 2011.
  • Interview with William McCune, Concord Oral History Program (1996)
  • Elon Musk, “All Our Patents Belong to You” (2014)
  • John Golden, “Biotechnology, Technology Policy, and Patentability: Natural Products and Invention in the American System, 50 Emory L.J. 101 (2001), pages 144-163
• September 14 (10:30-11:50): The Implications of Behavioral Economics
  • Jolls, Sunstein, and Thaler, “A Behavioral Approach to Law and Economics,” pages 1471-1489
  • Dennis Crouch, “The Patent Lottery: Exploiting Behavioral Economics for the Common Good,” 16 George Mason Law Review 141 (2008)

WEEK 3: Eligibility

• Lecture: Patentable Subject Matter (Fisher) 
• September 20 (10:30-11:50): Information Technology
  • Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank (SCOTUS 2014)
  • Manual of Patent Operating Procedure, Section 2106
• September 21 (10:30-11:50): Pharmaceutical Products  
  • Fisher & Syed, A War Not Easily Won (draft 2021), chapter 2, pages 1-21
  • Dennis Choi et al., “Medicines for the Mind: Policy-Based “Pull” Incentives for Creating Breakthrough CNS Drugs,” Neuron 84 (2014)

WEEK 4: Utility and Disclosure

• Lecture:  Utility and Disclosure (Fisher) 
• September 27 (10:30-11:50): Sufficiency
  • Regeneron Pharmaceuticals v. Kymab Ltd., 2020 UKSC 27
• September 28 (10:30-11:50): Disaggregation 
  • Mark Lemley & Dan Burk, Policy Levers in Patent Law (2003)

WEEK 5: Newness (Part 1)

• Lecture: Newness (Fisher)
• October 4 (10:30-11:50): Novelty
  • Steve Friess, “Super-Vision Camera Takes to Skies in Steve Fossett Search” (Wired 2007)
  • Geospatial Technology Associates v. United States (Court of Claims 2021)

• October 5 (10:30-11:50): Nonobviousness
  • Toyota v. Reactive Surfaces (CAFC 2020)
  • Chemours Company v. Daikin Industries (CAFC 2021)

Week 6: Newness (Part 2)

• October 12 (10:30-11:50): Nonobviousness: Policy and Comparative Law
  • Actavis Group v. ICOS Corp. (UK Supreme Court 2019)

WEEK 7: Claims

• Lecture:  Patent Scope (Fisher)
• October 18 (10:30-11:50): Claim Interpretation in Comparative Perspective
  • Bagley, Okediji & Erstling, “Around the World with Claim Construction: The Improver Cases” (forthcoming 2021)
  • Protocol on the Interpretation of Article 69 EPC
• October 19 (10:30-11:50): Claim Drafting
  • Case Study:  BeachBUB
  • WIPO Patent Drafting Manual, pages 33-42, 67-82

WEEK 8: Infringement

• Lecture:  Infringement (Fisher & Okediji) 
• October 25 (10:30-11:50): Designs
  • Egyptian Goddess (CAFC 2008)
  • Apple v. Samsung, 678 F.3d 1314 (2012):  pages 1329-33
• October 26 (10:30-11:50): Parallel Importation and Differential Pricing
  • Impression Products v. Lexmark (SCOTUS 2017)

WEEK 9: Remedies

• Lecture:  Remedies (Fisher)
• November 1 (10:30-11:50): The Evolution of Patent Remedies
  • Jonathan Barnett, “Has the Academy Led Patent Law Astray?,” 32 Berkeley Technology Law Review 1313 (2017), pp. 1316-1320, 1361-1379
• November 2 (10:30-11:50): Standard-Setting Organizations and Standard Essential Patents 
  • Jorge Contreras, Fixing FRAND: A Pseudo-Pool Approach to Standards-Based Patent Licensing, 79 Antitrust Law Journal 1 (2013)

WEEK 10: Litigation

• Lecture: Patent Litigation (Lee)
• November 8 (10:30-11:50): Behavioral Economics and Litigation Strategy
  • Jane Goodman-Delahunty et al., “Insightful or Wishful: Lawyers’ Ability to Predict Case Outcomes,” Psychology, Public Policy and Law 16 (2010): 133
• November 9 (10:30-11:50): A Conversation with Judge Prost, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
  • Daily and Kieff, Benefits of Patent Jury Trials for Commercializing Innovation, 21 George Mason Law Review 865 (2014)
  • IIPI & USPTO, Comparative Study of Specialized Intellectual Property Courts (2012), pages 1-10

WEEK 11: Countries and Companies

• Lecture: Patents in a Global Context (Okediji)
• November 15 (10:30-11:50): Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge
  • Materials on Traditional Knowledge
• November 16 (10:30-11:50): Strategic Options for Exploiting Patents
  • Case Study: Apple

WEEK 12: IP and Global Health

• Lecture: The Global Health Crisis (Fisher) 
• November 22 (10:30-11:50): Potential Solutions, Part 1
  • Fisher & Syed, A War Not Easily Won (draft 2021), chapter 3
• November 23 (10:30-11:50): Potential Solutions, Part 2
  • Colleen Chien & Evan Hastings, “Spurring and Clearing the Path for Open COVID Innovation Through Contextual Patent Disclosure” (May 20, 2020)
  • Fisher, Okediji & Gehl Sampath, “Fostering Production of Pharmaceutical Products in Developing Countries” (forthcoming 2022)

WEEK 13: Frontiers

• November 29 (10:30-11:50): Artificial Intelligence
  • Ryan Abbott, I Think, Therefore I Invent: Creative Computers and the Future of Patent Law, 57 B.C. L. Rev. 1079 (2016), pages 1092 – 1099; 1103 – 1113 (alternative source)
  • The Artificial Inventor Project, WIPO Magazine
  • WIPO Revised Issues Paper on Intellectual Property Policy and Artificial Intelligence,  Paragraphs 16-22
  • National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, Final Report, Chapter 12 (pages 465 -474) 
• November 30 (10:30-11:50): Fintech and Review Session
  • Lecture: Financial Technology (Fisher)
  • No reading assignment

GUIDELINES FOR CLASS DISCUSSION